Evil Empire announced a delay of their upcoming rogue-lite, The Rogue Prince of Persia, from its May 14 early-access release date to avoid being overshadowed by Hades II.

Supergiant Games’ sequel to the popular roguelike Hades was shadow-dropped into early access on May 6, and has quickly become a much-discussed game in the genre. Evil Empire said in a tweet that they wanted to put some distance between them and Hades II.

So we’ve got a little bit of news about The Rogue Prince of Persia, it’s all in the big yellow box👇https://t.co/S3FiyGFfrY pic.twitter.com/9PXlw4J2MZ

— Evil Empire (@Studio_Evil) May 10, 2024

“Seeing as everyone and their mum is playing [Hades II] (including our entire team… and their mums),” the post states, “we have decided to let people have their fun with it before we release The Rogue Prince of Persia.”

The early access will still release in May, and an exact release date will be announced on Monday.

“While we have every confidence in The Rogue Prince of Persia, it’s not every day that a game in the same genre as you, which is one of the most anticipated upcoming games of 2024, will release into Early Access a week before you plan to do the same,” it continues. “We are not prideful enough to ignore the implications of that, and we truly believe that this short delay is the best decision for us and our Early Access journey.”

In addition to giving space between major roguelike releases, the team said this delay would allow them to polish the game before release and test the Day 1 patch.

“This also lets us keep polishing up the game, add even more cool things and kick some stubborn bugs out before release,” the post says. “The Day 1 patch was getting pretty hefty, so gaining more time to test it and add more stuff before launch day has considerably lowered the stress levels of our producer and game developer already.”

“We completely understand that this is annoying news to hear for everyone who was eager to play the game, especially so close to the anticipated release,” it concludes. “We can only hold our hands up, apologize and hope that you understand. It will be worth the wait!”